VGC 19 Sun Series Team

Reshiram @ Choice Specs  Ability: Turboblaze  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA / 12 SpD / 236 Spe  Timid Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Fusion Flare  - Blue Flare  - Earth Power  - Draco Meteor	Zekrom @ Choice Scarf  Ability: Teravolt  Level: 50  EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Fusion Bolt  - Bolt Strike  - Crunch  - Outrage	Whimsicott @ Focus Sash  Ability: Prankster  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Encore  - Grass Knot  - Tailwind  - Sunny Day
Kartana @ Assault Vest  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 84 HP / 4 Atk / 12 Def / 252 SpD / 156 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Leaf Blade  - Smart Strike  - Knock Off  - Sacred Sword	Tapu Koko @ Life Orb  Ability: Electric Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Thunderbolt  - Dazzling Gleam  - Protect  - Volt Switch	Araquanid @ Safety Goggles  Ability: Water Bubble  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 68 Atk / 28 Def / 156 SpD / 4 Spe  Careful Nature  - Liquidation  - Protect  - Wide Guard  - Icy Wind

This is the team I ended up with after a few tests, I was glad I finally had a team with reshiram to begin with, despite trying out reshiram in utility ways seems to never have make cut for it, but soon using this team I realized that the true power of reshiram is in the ultimate offensive side which landed around 50% on kyogre and 70% on boosted xern with the fusion combination boosted fusion flare, I realized how awesome it was, since reshiram was on safe leads alongside zekrom, or coming out fresh from the back to land powerful hits in the midgame, I didn’t use more than one move, or say it didn’t have much time to use more than one move since choice specs fit it nicely for this team. Zekrom got outrage instead of dragon claw from on paper to first few tests, koko was changed from specs to lo, which swapped items with reshiram basically. On the fourth move for whimsicott I decided to add sunny day as it reduces the threat of kyogre and boosts reshiram greatly. Following are the problems I felt like I faced by the end of this testing session:

·         Zekrom + Reshiram is an amazingly effective combination.

·         Xerneas gave me a whole lot of trouble.

·         Kartana and araquanid work well in coordination with the dragons

·         Smeargle is trouble.

·         Intimidate and fake out issues with this team.

·         Whimsicott is a wonky support

·         More mons need protect, especially kartana and reshiram feel that need.

·         I felt like considering a stakataka mode due to the smeargle and xern issues that the team had, however maybe a bronzing in there considering the ground weakness’ threat. Intimidate also brings a lot of trouble.

Finding an Actual Good Team:

As was before this then same another entire new series of modifications to this team until I found how well was crobat putting up with the potential of both reshiram and zekrom, then I took these three mons and decided to fill up the team from there, a whole lot definitely didn’t change in this version of the team that I happened to be consideabl happy with but the realization what I needed to add to these slots to make this combination actually be something effective.

Tapu Lele:

Incineroar was trouble and the overall bulk of the team was bad, when it came to offense tapu koko wasn’t really providing much now with crobat taking the charge of handling venusaur and amoonguss safely and tapu lele with focus sash being able to atleast take one hit before going down with a focus sash I felt much more confident in this version and especially having this tapu on my team.

Gastrodon:

While ludicolo was more of a likeable mon for me to use it just wasn;t working well enough for this team seeing that my team could have trouble against kyogre’s aggressive water spouts as well as electric attacks from tapu koko gastrodon provided the best filler support o this team while adding a very decent additional counter to the likes of incineroar, xerneas’ setup and becoming a kyogre switch in and am not counting out it’s ability to take out a stakataka.

Reshiram @ Life Orb  Ability: Turboblaze  Level: 50  EVs: 244 HP / 4 Def / 92 SpA / 164 SpD / 4 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Fusion Flare  - Blue Flare  - Earth Power  - Protect	Zekrom @ Choice Scarf  Ability: Teravolt  Level: 50  EVs: 108 HP / 156 Atk / 4 Def / 84 SpD / 156 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Fusion Bolt  - Bolt Strike  - Crunch  - Outrage	Crobat @ Safety Goggles  Ability: Inner Focus  Level: 50  EVs: 244 HP / 12 Atk / 252 Spe  Jolly Nature  - Tailwind  - Taunt  - Haze  - Cross Poison
Gastrodon-East @ Aguav Berry  Ability: Storm Drain  Level: 50  EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Icy Wind  - Earth Power  - Protect  - Clear Smog	Tapu Lele @ Focus Sash  Ability: Psychic Surge  Level: 50  EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  Modest Nature  IVs: 0 Atk  - Psyshock  - Moonblast  - Ally Switch  - Protect	Kartana @ Assault Vest  Ability: Beast Boost  Level: 50  EVs: 84 HP / 4 Atk / 12 Def / 252 SpD / 156 Spe  Adamant Nature  - Leaf Blade  - Smart Strike  - Knock Off  - Sacred Sword

As much as I’d love to call reshiram the star of this team I couldn’t really as this team overall works in coordination with each other but reshiram sure does play a big part in it, from the very beginning of the development of this team reshiram I tried out many different sets on this reshiram starting from very bulkier sets to settling down onto all out offense with choice specs, then finally felt like that reshiram really needed that protect slot to pic up some really useful momentum before taking too much damage, so finally a life orb set was opted for, this also provided reshiram’s offense a great deal of flexibility, being able to switch between ground and fire type attacks was very useful as choice lock had limited it in many ways. The ev spread I chose for this mon was being able to make it survive a +2 xerneas’ moonblast whereas the big investment in the hp and special defense also allowed it to work well in terms of taking huge hits before landing its attacks. Reshiram happened to be one of the most valuable sources of offense for this team that is why I hardly ever felt like leading with this mon, usually a bit of support would be setup by crobat or gastrodon before reshiram comes in to shine.

Upnext is reshiram’s partner in crime Zekrom. I didn’t realize how useful this pokemon actually was until before having to use it on this team. The often overlooked ability works amazingly as it allows it to bypass any lightningrod users like raichu that are being used in this meta to save their kyogres or yveltals from attacks. Zekrom with the choice scarf had the potential to outspeed all modest max speed kyogres whereas the defense investment allowed it to be prevented from being ko’d by max invested lele’s attacks. Zekrom was the more valuable type offense to go fast going up against tapu fini and kyogre and yveltal. Whereas reshiram could follow with now a base 200 power fusion flare,this combination is extremely useful and really can turn around entire games. Crunch and dragon claw work as great fillers for coverage.

Crobat happens to be one of the best support pokemon to be alongside zekrom and reshiram. Having resistance to fairy type attacks and then having the ground immunity was just great. Crobat is such an amazing pokeon as it has the ability to nullify some very big threats of this metagame, though xerneas is taken down by this crobat the safety that it provides aginst smeargle and venusaur especially with safety goggles seems an amazing idea for the overall team haze was an extra measure of safety against xerneas or other setups if they do pass through the taunt and then tailwind happened to be the best idea for speed control for this team. Crobat can also help to stop trick room in this team, having inner focus to stop fake out it can use taunt to take out any trick room setters by using taunt. Crobat then again is a simple yet very effective member of this team and it works really well.

Gastrodon is probably the most suprising member for me to see fitting into this team, it was the last member I placed in this team, I felt like I had all the pokemons countered and needed something to fill in those missing gaps, gastrdon was the only pokemon that could’ve done it the best as it provided me a zero damage taken switchin on both tapu koko’s electric attacks as well as kyogre’s water spouts, incineroar and xerneas could also be double checked easily by it, whereas icy wind was chosen over scald as I felt like I never used scald anyways and icy wind provided a really nice option forsecondary speed control, gastrodon could also take on trick room pokemon and helps to fill up a fire/water/grass core on this team of mine. It’s ev spread in the end was chosen to be simple as I felt like I couldn’t add in anything more to it as too much bulk would makeit lose it’s offense and it wasn’t worth for it to be taking attacks that it can’t go up well against.

Tapu Koko was replaced by the now seemingly much better tapu lele as it finally could now save me from the trouble of incineroar’s or other fake out users as well as block ut tapu finis self swagger schenanigans alongside that tapu fini provided the team with a much better offensive option and especially with psyshock it could deal really heavy damage onto those assault vested tsareenas, tapu kokos and ofcourse the specially bulky xerneases and kyogres. I opted for fini going for focus sash as it could then do really well against 1v1 situations with surety. Ally switch was my last move of choice as it helps out with the composition of this team tapu lele helps absorb those opposing lele’s psychic attacks or transfers those big and scary steel type attacks to its partners, also the fairy immunity to ground causes it to absorb any such matchups where a big dragon move could disrupt my mon’s plans.

Last but not the least is kartana. Kartana happens to be a very suiting ember for this team that happens to reassure a whole lot of it’s counters to pokemon. I really do consider kartana as a single pokemon that can have the widest range of coverage in this game, especially with the techs of smart strike to remove threat of evasiveness as well as knock off to remove items which always happens to prove problematic for the opponents. I really do love kartana in the simplicity of it and it also seems to fit in against a big variety of matchups in this game. Kartana holds a member of two synergetic type cores of the aforementioned f/w/g core and the fantasy core of dragon fairy and steel type.